Read more about The Conspirator Online: Robert Redford is an activist and that’s all well and good, but he’s awful at balancing his political viewpoints with storytelling. His previous film, Lions for Lambs, was a pedantic, simpleminded bore. With his latest film, The Conspirator, Redford at least has the courtesy use a story, but it may as well be prefaced with “Hi, I’m Robert Redford. I’m going to provide you with an allegory based on how we treat military detainees. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must return to my other job as worn leather.”
Within the Conspirator, Mary Surratt clearly doesn’t should die for simply managing a boarding house and never quitting the location of her son. But any negative aspect of her character that would result in the audience think “This is a terrible woman and she or he should hang” is washed away. So ultimately the content isn’t “Everyone should be treated equally underneath the law.” The message is “All good people ought to be treated equally under the law.” I wholeheartedly agree: Innocent people shouldn’t be hung to death.
The Conspirator is preferable to Lions for Lambs, but so are most punches to the face. Robert Redford can’t seem to stop himself from preaching to the audience within the most lazy, condescending fashion. But if he’s going to use filmmaking as a vehicle to preach obvious points, he would prosper to not undermine his point with such blatant hypocrisy.
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